Breast Cancer Show Ever
Breast Cancer Show Ever is the ninth episode of Season 12 of Peanuts. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on October 15, 2008. The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. In the episode, Lucy van Pelt's disrespectful behavior puts her on the wrong side of Wendy Testaburger when she mocks her presentation on breast cancer awareness. Plot Lucy makes fun of Wendy after she delivers a report on breast cancer, which Wendy challenges her to a fight. When Linus tells her she might get beaten up by Wendy and called a "faggot" by Schroeder if she loses. Lucy tries to finding a way to get out of it. Full Plot The episode begins with Lucy mocking breast cancer during Wendy's presentation on breast cancer awareness, but Mr. Garrison does little to stop her. After class, Lucy continues to mock Wendy's efforts for breast cancer awareness, and Wendy announces she is going to fight Lucy after school. Butters rallies his classmates, including Bebe, who survived her defeat (in The List), Ike reports the kindergarten students, and Red tells the Goth Kids and Spike (who, as usual, pretends to be the janitor to steal things) about it as well. This only makes Lucy frightened and reluctant after seeing Wendy's angrered face and because Linus tells her that she will still be a reject to Schroeder if she gets beat up by another girl. Lucy tries to call off the fight with quiet apologies (attempting to keep the rest of the school from hearing it and pretending that she is brave and "hardcore", in order to avoid being called a coward), bribery, and desperate claims. When Wendy tells Lucy she will "shove her ass down her throat and make her eat her underwear!", Lucy painfully chokes down her underwear in an attempt to appease her, but this only disgusts and angers Wendy as she sees what little self-respect Lucy has (a statement Lucy surprisingly agrees with, quickly adding, "Unless you want me to. You want me to have self-respect, then I will."). Lucy tries to convince Charlie to talk Wendy out of it (while choking her underwear back up, replying "oh, that's where I put those"), but Charlie does not believe he can do anything to stop her. Desperate to avoid the fight, Lucy defecates on Mr. Garrison's desk, causing her to be put in detention. However, Linus tells her that Wendy rescheduled the fight for the following morning before school. Later, Lucy has Snoopy, who disguises himself as her father, convincing Wendy's parents not to let her fight her by pretending to be tormented and bullied by her at school, and she reluctantly gives in. Much to Wendy's shock, instead of letting up, Lucy merely continues to taunt her, taking advantage of the fact that she can no longer fight back lest her parents find out, and the other students start to follow her example. When Lucy gives a mock presentation on breast cancer in class to rub Wendy's face in her victory, she nearly fights her but is called to Principal Victoria's office. Much to Wendy's surprise, Principal Victoria commends Wendy for all the things she has done to spread awareness of breast cancer, and explains that she is a breast cancer survivor herself. She indirectly (but deliberately) compares Lucy to a cancer, telling Wendy that "Cancer does not play by the rules", that it is "a jerking little lump that needs to be destroyed", and "you refuse to let that jerking little lump make you feel powerless." Realizing that she will never stop of her own volition, and also that she has Principal Victoria's support, Wendy decides to confront Lucy once and for all. Wendy then meets Lucy on the playground for the fight, and although Lucy briefly gains the upper hand, Wendy soon emerges victorious with only a few bruises, while leaving Lucy bruised, bloody, and having knocked out many of her teeth. The other students cheer her and Lucy further lowers herself by not even taking the beating with any kind of dignity, bursting pathetically into tears in front of everybody. In a subplot, Snoopy overhears a woman named Hayley Smith (from American Dad) singing in the shower on George Liquor's house and invites her to sing at his newly opened bar in his doghouse. Her singing becomes a hit and Snoopy develops a crush on Hayley. After trying unsuccessfully to break off his feelings for her because she is a married woman, Snoopy shoots Hayley but finds that doesn't end his feelings for her. Kidnapping her to an abandoned ice factory, he plans on taking off her skin but is interrupted by Hayley's family and Jeff Fisher. Hayley gets Snoopy to understand that love is mutual and something she doesn't share with Snoopy, so Snoopy decides to skin Jeff instead. When that also fails, Snoopy decides to return Jeff's skin. Cast Transcript Quotes Production Development Theme Cultural references Animated cameos Reception The episode received mostly positive reviews. The A.V. Club graded the episode a B+, stating "All in all, not the most ambitious episode, but that actually worked in its favor: Outside of Wendy's crib from There Will Be Blood at the end, it could have been broadcast 10 years ago and worked, and I also have a feeling it will still be funny 10 years from now since it wasn't crammed with instantly dated references". IGN gave the episode an 8.2/10 rating, stating "While this is a fun sequence, and a nice bit of observation, the episode does seem somewhat anticlimactic. It's amusing that Lucy thinks she somehow achieved something when she finds out the kids always thought she sucked and their opinion of her 'couldn't possibly be any lower'. Massive self delusion is part of Lucy's 'charm'. But the episode is unusually focused for Peanuts and once the fight is over there's a sense (perhaps intentionally?) of 'that's it?' It's not one of the best episodes ever, but it's a solid old-school installment that offers up some truly great moments – many of them quintessential Lucy. Which is always fun to watch". Home release "Breast Cancer Show Ever", along with the thirteen other episodes from Peanuts' twelfth season, were released on a three-disc DVD set and two-disc Blu-ray set in the United States on March 10, 2009. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode, a collection of deleted scenes, and two special mini-features, The Making of 'Major Boobage and Six Days to Peanuts. Trivia Category:Peanuts (1997 TV adult show) Category:Peanuts (1997 TV adult show) episodes